Some troubling news came out this week about the new My School website; and the pressures it's placing on some teachers and students. The website, produced by the Federal Government - contains the literacy and numeracy scores of every school in Australia; it also has features like coloured bars, (green and red), to indicate if a school is academically above or below average. Parents are loving it ... it helps them decide where they want to send their kids... But teachers and principals say schools are being stigmatized by it. The Australian Education Union did a survey and found that over 80 per cent of principals think it misrepresents their school. This week we hear from Mary Blewitt, national deputy president of the Australian Education Union.
TELL US YOUR THOUGHTS:
• If you're a parent, have you found the MySchool website helpful in choosing which school to send your children to?
• Do you feel you need to know about the academic performance of the students at a school to decide whether to send your children there or not?
• Teachers and principals - - what have you experienced? Has your school or other schools you know of, been unfairly stigmatised?
• Have you felt pressure to teach children so they will do well in the NAPLAN test rather than just focussing on the actual curriculum?
• Do you know of individual students who have been stigmatised or pressured because of their academic performance?
Comments (2)
My children go to a very small school of 125 students, which is why I chose it.
The principle is fantastic and knows each child by name, as do the other teachers. The school is wholistic and see's that each child keeps up and every child that needs extra help whether long term or short term, gets it.
The principle has spent a lot of time promomting the school as we compete with another much larger school in the area. We are up to date with the latest computers and resources, and partake in most school competitions, such as choir and dance, and do well. we do not lack on resources.
However, the MySchool website, has ranked us very poorly, -below average - and the school community feels the schools reputation has been damaged. It reflects nothing of the school, and, in fact, the schools own stats show, that we actually do very well.
Unfortuantly this new website does nothing to show the true value of schools, and the hard work that teachers put in to make schools a safe, 'extended family'.
Posted by Melanie | April 12, 2010 12:02 AM
Posted on April 12, 2010 00:02
I see nothing good coming from this MySchool website. I spent 6 months deliberating over which school to send my daughter to and visited several in the process. The school I am very happy with only showed up as mediocre on the site. This is because of the wholistic aproach they use
( which played a big part in me chosing it).
I think the site is going to encourage lazy parents to be even lazier in picking a school. And put pressure on schools to move away from the philosphies which may be the very reason they have students at all.
Posted by Cara Harris | March 28, 2010 10:55 PM
Posted on March 28, 2010 22:55